Method and apparatus for providing audio advertisements in a computer network

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for providing audio advertisements in a computer network enables Web sites to deliver audio advertisements that cannot be bypassed by a visitor. More particularly, an advertising or sponsoring Web site receives a request from at least one user for delivery of a user-selected Web page associated with the Web site. The Web site selects at least one audio advertisement from a plurality of audio advertisements for delivery to the user in conjunction with the user-selected Web page. The Web site then delivers the audio advertisement to the user via the network in a format that precludes the user from controlling the manner of playback of the audio advertisement.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(e)to the following related applications: (a) U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 60/213,396, filed Jun. 23, 2000; (b) U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 60/213,827, filed Jun. 23, 2000; (c) U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 60/225,943, filed Aug. 17, 2000; and (d) U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/226,108, filed Aug. 17, 2000. These relatedapplications are specifically incorporated by reference herein, in theirentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus forproviding audio advertisements in a computer network. More specifically,this invention relates to a method and apparatus for deliveringcustomized audio advertisements to users in a manner such that users arenot required to perform any action nor are they enabled to control theaudio stream provided by these audio advertisements.

[0004] 2. Description of Related Art

[0005] For many years, the global retail market has been characterizedas a market in which physical products are sold from physical locations.In recent years, however, this dynamic has undergone a significantchange in response to the increasing popularity of the Internet and inparticular with the increasing popularity of advertising on theInternet. It should be appreciated that the Internet is defined here asa collection of interconnected (public and/or private) networks linkedtogether by a set of standard protocols (such as TCP/IP and HTTP) toform a global, distributed network. While this term is intended to referto what is now commonly known as the Internet, it is also intended toencompass variations that may be made in the future, including changesand additions to existing standard protocols.

[0006] Many Internet websites are supported by business models that relyheavily, if not entirely, on revenue generated from the sale ofadvertising. A host website devoted to the presentation of news,commentary, product/service descriptions and other forms of content mayfurther include advertisements in the form of graphic or textual bannerscovering a portion of the displayed page. A visitor to the website canobtain additional information regarding the product or service shown inthe advertisement by clicking on a portion of the advertisement. Thisaction generally causes a separate page to be delivered to the visitorcontaining the additional information. These host websites are paid bysponsors according to the number of clicks made by website visitors onthese sponsored advertisements. Therefore, a decline in the number ofclicks a particular sponsor advertisement receives directly translatesto a loss in revenue for the host website. As the Internet becomes morepopular and commercial, these websites are having an increasinglydifficult time selling advertisements due to a substantial reduction inmost website visitors'willingness to click on these advertisements. Aprimary reason for this reluctance is the simple fact that websiteadvertisements are now so common that website visitors are no longerenticed to click on them. Thus, as website visitors become more aware ofparticular types of advertisements they are much more inclined to ignorethem.

[0007] As the Internet becomes more popular, and as Internet users gainaccess to the Internet at increasing modem speeds and bandwidth levels,multimedia content on the Internet is becoming more prevalent. Thisdevelopment means that a wider variety of new advertising modalities arebecoming available. In response to this availability, many websites arenow attempting to add audio advertisements to their online advertisementrepertoire; however, there are drawbacks with the way in which currentaudio advertisements are implemented on the Internet. One problem isthat website visitors must launch an audio streaming application inorder to listen to an audio program. If the visitor chooses not tolaunch the audio streaming application, the audio advertisement will notbe performed. Even if the visitor does launch the audio streamingapplication, the visitor can still bypass the audio advertisementaltogether by simply scrolling ahead of the advertisement using thecontrol buttons of the audio streaming application. Thus, the visitorcan effectively thwart the delivery of the audio advertisement to thedetriment of the host website and the sponsor.

[0008] A need in the industry therefore exists for a way to enablewebsites to deliver audio advertisements that cannot be bypassed by thevisitor. More specifically, the audio advertisements should not requirethe visitor to perform any action to enable delivery of the audioadvertisement, and the visitor should not be able to otherwise controlthe manner of delivery of the audio advertisement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] A method and apparatus for providing audio advertisements in acomputer network enables Web sites to deliver audio advertisements thatcannot be bypassed by a visitor. More particularly, an advertising orsponsoring Web site receives a request from at least one user fordelivery of a user-selected Web page associated with the Web site. TheWeb site selects at least one audio advertisement from a plurality ofaudio advertisements for delivery to the user in conjunction with theuser-selected Web page. The Web site then delivers the audioadvertisement to the user via the network in a format that precludes theuser from controlling the manner of playback of the audio advertisement.

[0010] In an embodiment of the invention, the advertising or sponsoringWeb site provides software code that gives users alternative methods tolink to other websites during any one of these audio advertisements. Inparticular, the software code may include “shortcut” commands thatautomatically forward the user to a sponsor Web page once that shortcutcommand is executed. The user's input device may therefore be empoweredin such a way that multiple input combinations may yield a plurality ofdifferent results.

[0011] In another embodiment of the present invention, participating Websites may cross-promote each other within the computer network. Theadvertisers are compensated according to the number of audioadvertisements that particular advertiser has presented to users forparticular sponsors. Credits may, for example, be exchanged for audioadvertisements on the Web site hosted by the sponsor corresponding toaudio advertisement for which these credits were received.

[0012] In another embodiment, a database comprising the web sessiontendencies of all visitors to the computer network is maintained. Itshould be appreciated that tendency data is stored within this databasein order to determine which audio advertisements are best suited forparticular users. In particular, these tendencies are associated withcorresponding users in order to generate query strings used to searchthrough an advertisement database. Particular audio advertisements arethen selected according to a weighting algorithm that determines whichsearch results are more likely to yield favorable results in response tothose audio advertisements selected.

[0013] A more complete understanding of a method and apparatus forproviding audio advertisements in a computer network will be afforded tothose skilled in the art, as well as a realization of additionaladvantages and objects thereof, by a consideration of the followingdetailed description of the preferred embodiment. Reference will be madeto the appended sheets of drawings, which will first be describedbriefly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus for providing audioadvertisements in a computer network in accordance with the invention;and

[0015]FIG. 2 is a flow chart outlining the operation of advertisercomputer systems according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0016] The present invention is directed towards a method and apparatusfor providing audio advertisements in a computer network. Morespecifically, the present invention is directed towards a method andapparatus for providing audio advertisements without requiring that theuser take any action to initiate the audio delivery or performance. In apreferred embodiment of the invention, audio advertisements are playedin a randomly accessible series such that a user is exposed toadvertisements tailored to their interests. In particular, the presentinvention allows for audio advertisements to be played in a manner suchthat each subsequent advertisement is based on user reactions to prioraudio advertisements. It should be appreciated that these audioadvertisements may include advertisements that promote various otherwebsites in a computer network. Moreover, a method and apparatus isdescribed for cross-promoting participating websites in a computernetwork such that advertiser computer systems receive credits forplaying audio advertisements for other websites directly from their ownwebsite. Within such embodiments, the advertiser responsible for playingan audio advertisement shall receive credit for playing thatadvertisement from the appropriate sponsor. In the detailed descriptionthat follows, it should be appreciated that like element numerals areused to describe like elements illustrated in one or more of thefigures.

[0017] Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram is illustrated of a widearea network employing a method and apparatus according to an embodimentof the invention. It is anticipated that the present invention operateswith a plurality of computers that are coupled together within a widearea network, such as the Internet 20, or other communications network.As illustrated, an advertiser computer system 10 is shown to communicatewith a sponsor computer system 30 and user computer systems 40 via theInternet 20. It should be appreciated that user computers 40 may includeany type of computing device that allows a user to interactively browsewebsites, such as a personal computer (PC) that includes a Web browserapplication 42 (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer™ or NetscapeCommunicator™). Suitable user computers 40 equipped with browsers 42 areavailable in many configurations, including handheld devices (e.g.,PalmPilot™), personal computers (PC), laptop computers, workstations,television set-top devices, multi-functional cellular phones, and soforth.

[0018] It should be further appreciated that the advertiser computersystem 10 is defined here as a computer system hosting websites on whichsponsors have placed an audio advertisement to promote certain productsand services of the sponsor, while the sponsor computer system 30 isherein referred to as those computer systems with websites for whichaudio advertisements on the advertiser computer system 10 are designedto promote. The wide area network may include many such advertisercomputer systems and sponsor computer systems. While a single usercomputer system 40 is shown in FIG. 1, it should be appreciated thatmany such user computer systems may be in communication with theadvertiser computer system 10 and/or sponsor computer system 30simultaneously.

[0019] The advertiser computer system 10 is comprised of an applicationsprocessor 12 coupled to a counter 13, a Web server 14 connected to anHTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) documents database 15, and a searchengine 16 connected to a visitor history database 17 and anadvertisement database 19. Similarly, the sponsor computer system 30 iscomprised of an applications processor 32 coupled to a Web server 34connected to an HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) documents database 35.As is generally known in the art, search engines (such as search engine16) typically incorporate a database engine, such as a SQL Server™engine from Microsoft Corporation or Oracle™ database engine, as part oftheir architecture. It is also well known in the art that such searchengines typically perform searches by operating on a string ofcharacters, known as a “query string.” A query string is coded accordingto a set of rules determined by the database engine and/or a userinterface between the database engine and the user. As used herein, a“query” is broader than a “query string,” denoting both the query stringand the search logic represented by the query string, whereas “querystring” refers only to a string of characters, symbols, or codes used todefine a query. As is also generally known in the art, Web servers (suchas Web servers 14 and 34) access a plurality of Web pages, distributableapplications, and other electronic files containing information ofvarious types respectively stored in HTML document databases 15 and 35.As a result, Web pages may be viewed on various user computers 40; forexample, a particular Web page or other electronic file may be viewedthrough a suitable application program residing on a user computer 40,such as a browser 42, or by a distributable application provided to theuser computer 40 by Web server 14 or 34.

[0020] It should be further appreciated that a user identifies a desiredWeb page for delivery to the user computer 40 by communicating an HTTP(Hyper-Text Transport Protocol) request from the browser application 42.The HTTP request includes the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of thedesired Web page, which may correspond to an HTML document stored in theHTML documents databases 15, 35. The HTTP request is routed to the Webservers 14, 34 via the Internet 20. The Web servers 14, 34 then retrievethe HTML document identified by the URL, and communicate the HTMLdocument across the Internet 20 to the browser application 42. The HTMLdocument may be communicated in the form of plural message packets asdefined by standard protocols, such as the Transport ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

[0021] It should be noted that other architectural embodiments of theinvention may also be implemented. Within one such alternativeembodiment, only the sponsor computer system 30 may be comprised of thesub-components described above while the advertiser computer system 10is comprised of only an applications processor 12 coupled to a Webserver 14 connected to an HTML documents database 15. It should also benoted that, since sponsor computer systems 30 may also be comprised ofaudio advertisements and since some advertiser computer systems 10 mayalso be sponsors, a sponsor computer system 30 may simultaneously beconsidered an advertiser computer system 10 in some embodiments and viceversa. For simplicity, the following description is made assuming thatthe advertiser computer system 10 and the sponsor computer system 30both have architectures consistent with the block diagram described inFIG. 1. If this type of architecture is implemented, it should beunderstood that the advertiser computer system 10 ultimately controlshow these audio advertisements are presented to the user (e.g., whichaudio advertisements, at what frequency, etc.). It should be appreciatedthat the alternative architectural embodiment described above may alsobe implemented, where the sponsor computer system 40 ultimately controlshow these audio advertisements are presented to the user, withoutcompromising the scope and spirit of the invention.

[0022] In an embodiment of the invention, an advertiser computer system10 delivers customized audio advertisements to a user according totendency data stored within the visitor history database 17 for thatparticular user. The tendency data includes topical measurements of auser's information interests. Various methods may be used to determine auser's tendencies, such as, for example, providing a form or Web pagefor the user to designate topical areas of interest, analyzing theuser's demographic and purchasing information to ascertain likely areasof interest, and analyzing a record or history of the user's priorqueries. It may be particularly useful to rank user tendencies inpriority order. For example, if tendencies are to be determined from arecord of prior queries, the tendencies could be ranked according tofactors such as the frequency with which the same or similar querieshave been repeated, the number of related queries in a topical area, andthe length of time since the query was repeated. These and various othermethods known in the art may be used to determine a user's tendencies,and the invention is not limited by the method that the determination ismade.

[0023]FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart outlining the operation ofadvertiser computer systems 10 according to a preferred embodiment ofthe invention. This operation begins at step 100 when the advertisercomputer system 10 receives an HTTP request from the user computersystem 40. At step 105, the advertiser computer system 10 then deliversthe desired Web page to the user computer system 40. The user computersystem 40 is then identified by the advertiser computer system 10 atstep 110 in order to determine whether this particular user has aprevious history with the advertiser computer system 10 at step 115. Ifa previous history is indeed found at step 115, then the history filedescribing the tendencies of this particular user stored within thevisitor history database 17 is opened at step 130; otherwise, a historyfile for that particular user is generated at step 120. It should beappreciated that whenever a history file is generated, the tendencyinformation contained in this file may be based on numerous criteria.Such criteria may include the nature of the website as identified by theoperator of the website, the nature of the website as determined by ananalysis of the name, URL, content and keywords of the website, thenature of the website from which the user arrived at the advertiser'swebsite, or any other type of identifying information at the disposal ofthe advertiser computer system 10.

[0024] In an embodiment of the invention, the above-described criteriaare used to generate primary search strings at step 132. In particular,the primary search strings generated at step 132 may be simple querystrings that are used to ascertain information from the visitor historydatabase 17 using a conventional search engine 16. Such primary searchstrings may, for example, include “restaurants in city y”, which mayresult from the advertiser computer system 10 having detected that theuser had visited a website describing a restaurant in city y prior tovisiting the advertiser's website.

[0025] The procedure continues at step 134 with a search of anadvertisement database 19 being performed according to the searchstrings found at step 132. Depending on the criteria desired by theadvertiser computer system 10, an internal weighting algorithm may beused to determine which returned search results best match thetendencies of the user as anticipated by the advertiser computer system10. The advertiser computer system 10 then selects only those searchresults receiving a criterion score above some predetermined thresholdat step 135. It is to be understood that different audio advertisementsmay be selected for different users based on different criteria scores.For example, if a user links to an advertiser's website pertaining topolitics from a website pertaining to news, then the user may receive anaudio advertisement pertaining to breaking news about politics. If adifferent user links to this same advertiser's website from a websitepertaining to taxes, then that user might receive an audio advertisementpertaining to a political candidate who advocates a cut in taxes.

[0026] In a similar embodiment, these searches may be expanded using aninternal search string database, containing sets of generic searchstrings that are typically associated with certain strings,simultaneously with the visitor history database 17 in order to generatesecondary search strings. In particular, the applications processor 12may be programmed to search for more specific search strings from withinthis search string database in an attempt to provide the user with anaudio advertisement that more accurately reflects the profile of theuser according to tendency data stored in the visitor history database17. The aforementioned search for “restaurants in city y”, for example,may thus include a search that is expanded to also include “hotels incity y” or “restaurants in city x”, where city x may be close inproximity to city y. Within the context of the flow chart illustrated inFIG. 2, these secondary search strings may be generated at step 132simultaneously with the previously described primary search strings. Theprimary and secondary search strings found at step 132 may then becombined and used to search through the advertisement database 19 atstep 134 followed by the selection of the appropriate audioadvertisements at step 135.

[0027] Once the appropriate audio advertisements have been selected atstep 135, the advertiser computer system 10 proceeds by downloadingthese audio files to the user computer system 40 at step 140. It shouldbe appreciated that the download described here for step 140 does notnecessarily supersede the download of other content that the user isreceiving, but rather the audio file may be downloaded concurrently withother data, or before or after any or all of the other data that isrequested by the user computer system 40. In an alternative embodiment,audio files may be downloaded in conjunction with hyperlinkadvertisements in order to direct the user's attention to thesehyperlinks for the purpose of generating traffic on the advertiser'swebsite. In another embodiment, the loading of the audio file at step140 is independent of the Web page from where it originated. Within thisembodiment, an audio file will continue to be downloaded onto the usercomputer system 40 even if the user leaves the Web page before the audioadvertisement has begun to play. The method of initiating this downloadmay include the use of hidden frames, i-frames, pop-up windows, passivepop-up windows, or any other ways of creating a connection to the user'sWeb browser 42 that would be maintained even if the user leaves the Webpage that initiated the download connection.

[0028] Returning to FIG. 2, the audio file downloaded at step 140 willplay on the user computer system 40 via the advertiser computer system10 once a sufficient amount of the file is delivered. This amount isdetermined at step 145 according to user information ascertained at step110, which information may include the speed of the user's modemconnection and the size of the audio file being downloaded. If asufficient amount of the file is indeed loaded at step 145, then theaudio file is played at step 150; otherwise, the advertiser computersystem continues to download the audio file at step 140. It should beappreciated that audio advertisements run at step 150 may be produced,compressed, and played in a variety of formats. Such formats may includeflash or any other suitable format that can automatically play audio onthe user computer system 40 without requiring that the user take anyaction to initiate the audio play. It should be further appreciated thataudio advertisements are transmitted in a format such that a usercomputer system 40 does not launch any new application or plug-in thatwould allow the user to control the audio flow of the advertisement.

[0029] In an alternative embodiment, participating websites in acomputer network may also cross-promote other participating websites. Inparticular, websites within a network may receive credits forcross-promoting other participating websites using audio advertisements.Within such an embodiment, these credits may then be exchanged forrevenue, advertisement space, or any other type of compensation from thewebsite being cross-promoted. For example, once a participating websiteobtains a sufficient number of credits, those credits may be exchangedfor the right to run their own audio advertisement on the website beingcross-promoted. It should be appreciated that any audio advertisementspace not filled using these credits may be filled by audioadvertisements selected by, and displayed for the benefit of, the audioadvertisement network administrator (e.g., an advertisement solicitingwebmasters from nonparticipating websites to participate in the audioadvertisement network).

[0030] In general, however, the advertiser website responsible forproviding a user with an audio advertisement is credited by the sponsorof that advertisement whenever a sponsor advertisement is played. Inparticular, the flow chart described in FIG. 2 continues at step 155with an increment of the counter 13 which directly reflects the numberof credits a particular website should receive. It is to be understoodthat the audio advertisement network may permit websites to presentusers with either a single audio advertisement per Web page, multipleaudio advertisements per Web page, a single audio advertisement per timeduration, or any combination of the above or similar criteria. It is tobe further understood that audio advertisements may be limited infrequency such that once a user has been presented with one or severalaudio advertisements in a given time period, the user may not bepresented with additional audio advertisements for a certain time.

[0031] Once an audio advertisement is played for a user, the user caneither ignore the advertisement or act on the advertisement at step 160.Such responses to an advertisement may include visiting the sponsor'swebsite, actively interacting with the sponsor's website, or evenpurchasing or otherwise completing the sponsor's desired objective onthe sponsor's website. In another embodiment, audio advertisements arerun in conjunction with certain software applications that allow for theuser to access one or more sponsor Web pages with a single key stroke,mouse click, voice command or other input. In one such embodiment, anadvertiser computer system 10 may include certain software code withintheir website, such that when an audio advertisement is being played,the user's browser 42 will interpret certain inputs from the user'skeyboard at step 160 as a “shortcut” command to forward the user to theappropriate sponsor's website. It is to be understood that anyappropriate input device may be similarly used, such as specific mousebuttons, specific mouse movements, specific voice commands or otherappropriate input devices, or any combination of the above. It is to befurther understood that advertisers may provide the aforementionedsoftware code directly within their Web page, or the sponsor may causesuch code to be embedded within the Web page, or any combination of theabove, or any other way of establishing the appropriate browser responseto the appropriate input may be used.

[0032] In another embodiment, the user may be introduced to severalsponsors in a single audio advertisement or a combination of multiplesuccessive audio advertisements. Within such embodiments, the user'sinput device may be empowered by the previously mentioned software codein such a way that multiple input combinations may yield a plurality ofdifferent results. An embodiment of the invention may, for example,dictate that the actuation of a certain key on the keyboard will causethe user's browser 42 to display another sponsor Web page. Certain keysor keystrokes could similarly cause the user's browser 42 to displaymultiple or all sponsors in one or more browser windows. It should beunderstood, however, that the keyboard is described in this embodimentfor explanatory purposes only, and that any appropriate input device maybe similarly used.

[0033] It should be further understood that the input used by the userto display one or more sponsor websites can either be preset by theadvertiser, or can be dynamically sent to the advertiser from thesponsor once the appropriate audio advertisement is selected. Someembodiments may be implemented in a manner such that the input device ordevices are enabled only for a certain period of time (e.g., theduration of the audio advertisement or any other pre-determined span oftime). In another embodiment, keystroke inputs would serve as shortcutsto particular sponsor websites only if the user's browser 42 does nothave input fields that are active in a manner such that the user wouldotherwise provide input to those fields. Activation of these dormantinput fields, such as by a mouse click, would thereby disable anykeystroke shortcut to the sponsor website until no such input fieldsremained active. Once all these input fields are inactive, the keystrokeshortcuts may again be enabled.

[0034] Other embodiments of the present invention may also beimplemented so that certain user inputs that result in a shortcut to asponsor's website are encoded with a tracking code such that when theuser arrives at the sponsor's website, they arrive by way of an encodedURL containing full tracking code data pertaining to the user's presentweb session which may include the use of “cookies”. This tracking codemay then be read by the sponsor computer system 30, once a user links totheir website, in order to give appropriate credit to the advertiserfrom where the user was linked. Within such an embodiment, differenttracking codes may be issued to different advertisers, or to differentwebsites operated by the same advertiser. It should be noted, however,that although current tracking codes may readily identify both theadvertiser computer system 10 from where the user was linked and theparticular audio advertisement that was played, future tracking codesmay be encoded to include a greater amount of information that furtheridentifies the tendencies of that particular user.

[0035] It should also be noted that user inputs may include inputs ofvarying degrees of complexity. For example, a sponsor or advertiser mayestablish that the actuation of any single keystroke by the user wouldforward the user to the sponsor's website, or it may be established thatdifferent single or multiple keystrokes forward the user to differentWeb pages either within the sponsor's website or some otherparticipating website.

[0036] Returning to the flow chart illustrated in FIG. 2, the procedurecontinues at step 160 with the advertiser computer system 10 detectinghow the user responds to the audio advertisement being played. Inparticular, if the advertiser computer system 10 does indeed detect aninput from the user at step 160, then the appropriate response to thisinput is executed at step 162 followed by an update to that particularuser's file within the visitor history database 17 at step 165.Otherwise, the advertiser computer system 10 remains at step 160 andcontinues to sense whether the user has entered an input.

[0037] In another embodiment, a sponsor may desire that the user visitthe sponsor's website or a portion of the advertiser's website that isdisplayed to the user for the benefit of the sponsor. If the userresponds favorably to a particular audio advertisement within thisembodiment, a new audio advertisement may then be presented. This audioadvertisement may include the same, additional, or new material that iscustomized for users according to how they reacted to the previous audioadvertisement. For example, if a visitor to a political website ispresented with an audio advertisement pertaining to a politician whosupports a tax cut, and that user responds by visiting that politician'swebsite, then the audio advertisement that the user is presented withmight include an advertisement in which the politician elaborates on thedetails of his/her tax cut proposal. This audio advertisement mayfurther suggest additional actions on the part of the visitor, such asrequesting that the user visit another Web page within the website, orthe purchase of a product or service, or some other action. Continuingwith the present example, this second audio advertisement may concludewith an appeal to the user to subscribe to the politician's e-mail listto receive updates on his/her campaign. Similarly, the advertisement maysimply conclude with an appeal to support the candidate and to vote onelection day.

[0038] It should be appreciated that, in some embodiments, anunfavorable user response to an audio advertisement does not necessarilymean that similar audio advertisements will not be presented to thatparticular user. Referring to the prior example, if a user is presentedwith a first audio advertisement for a politician advocating lowertaxes, to which the user does not respond, a second audio advertisementmay then be presented for the same politician pertaining to thatpolitician's views on education and suggesting that the user reviewhis/her website for more details. The choice of the second and allfuture audio advertisements may be based on any of the criteria used inselecting the first advertisement, as well as additional criteria thatmay have been added to visitor history database 17 since the selectionof the first advertisement. It should be appreciated that a limit mayalso be implemented, such that if the user does not respond to apre-determined number of audio advertisements, then the user might besubjected to a new advertising campaign.

[0039] Similarly, if the user responds positively to any audioadvertisement, but does not fully complete the sponsor's desiredobjectives, there may be a different selection of audio advertisementspresented to the user upon future visits to the advertiser's website.For example, if a user favorably responds to a sponsor's advertisementon an advertiser's website by linking to the sponsor's website, but doesnot join the politician's mailing list, subsequent audio advertisementsmay include a message reminding the user to assist in the election ofthe politician by adding themselves to the politician's mailing list.Similarly, if such subsequent audio advertisements are successful infulfilling the sponsor's desired objective, the user may then bepresented with a different set of audio advertisements including a“welcome back” message whenever the user returns to the sponsor'swebsite.

[0040] It should again be noted that the “tree” of audio advertisementsfrom which advertisements are presented may be based on a variety offactors as described above, including the degree of successfulinteraction that each individual user exhibits to each successive audioadvertisement presented by an advertiser, and the depth of the user'sexposure to the audio advertisement tree. It should therefore beappreciated that a user who visits many advertiser websites as well asmany other sponsor websites directly from those advertisement websites,but who rarely or never completes the sponsor's ultimate objective(e.g., subscribing to the politician's mailing list in the exampleabove), could continuously be presented with audio advertisements thatare different from other users whose behavior is different.

[0041] Having thus described a preferred embodiment of a method andapparatus for providing audio advertisements in a computer network, itshould be apparent to those skilled in the art that certain advantagesof the within system have been achieved. It should also be appreciatedthat various modifications, adaptations, and alternative embodimentsthereof may be made within the scope and spirit of the presentinvention. The invention is further defined by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing advertising in a computernetwork, comprising: receiving a request from at least one user fordelivery of a user-selected Web page associated with a Web site;selecting at least one audio advertisement from a plurality of audioadvertisements for delivery to said at least one user in conjunctionwith said user-selected Web page; and delivering said at least one audioadvertisement to said at least one user via said network in a formatthat precludes said at least one user from controlling manner ofplayback of said audio advertisement.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising delivering software code to said at least one user thatenables said user to link to another Web site during delivery of saidaudio advertisement.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprisingenabling said at least one user to use any of a plurality of inputdevices to signal a desire to link to said other Web site.
 4. The methodof claim 1, further comprising cross-promoting participating Web siteswithin said computer network.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising compensating an advertiser according to a total number ofsaid audio advertisements delivered to said at least one user.
 6. Themethod of claim 7, further comprising providing credits to saidadvertiser for delivery of said audio advertisements.
 7. The method ofclaim 8, further comprising permitting exchange of said credits fordelivery of other audio advertisements.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising maintaining a database of tendency data correspondingto said at least one user.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprisingweighting said tendency data in accordance with predetermined criteria.10. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating query stringsaccording to said tendency data stored within said database.
 11. Themethod of claim 10, further comprising generating secondary querystrings utilizing a query string database in conjunction with saidtendency data.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein said selecting stepfurther comprises selecting one of said plurality of audioadvertisements for said at least one user in accordance with saidtendency data.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein said delivering stepfurther comprises downloading said at least one audio advertisement ontoa computer operated by said at least one user.
 14. The method of claim13, wherein downloading step further comprises downloading said at leastone audio advertisement concurrently with downloading of other types ofdata onto said computer.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein saiddownloading step is completed regardless of whether said at least oneuser has left said user-selected Web page.
 16. The method of claim 1,wherein said delivering step further comprises determining if asufficient amount of said at least one audio advertisement has beendelivered as to begin playing of said at least one audio advertisement.17. A system for providing advertisements in a computer network,comprising: a server connected to said computer network and having anaudio advertisement application executing in association with saidserver to provide the functions of: receiving a request from at leastone user for delivery of a user-selected Web page associated with a Website; selecting at least one audio advertisement from a plurality ofaudio advertisements for delivery to said at least one user inconjunction with said user-selected Web page; and delivering said atleast one audio advertisement to said at least one user via said networkin a format that precludes said at least one user from controllingmanner of playback of said audio advertisement.
 18. The system of claim17, wherein said application further comprises the function ofdelivering software code to said at least one user that enables saiduser to link to another Web site during delivery of said audioadvertisement.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein said applicationfurther comprises the function of enabling said at least one user to useany of a plurality of input devices to signal a desire to link to saidother Web site.
 20. The system of claim 17, wherein said applicationfurther comprises the function of cross-promoting participating Websites within said computer network.
 21. The system of claim 17, whereinsaid application further comprises the function of compensating anadvertiser according to a total number of said audio advertisementsdelivered to said at least one user.
 22. The system of claim 21, whereinsaid application further comprises the function of providing credits tosaid advertiser for delivery of said audio advertisements.
 23. Thesystem of claim 22, wherein said application further comprises thefunction of permitting exchange of said credits for delivery of otheraudio advertisements.
 24. The system of claim 18, further comprising adatabase of tendency data corresponding to said at least one user. 25.The system of claim 24, wherein said application further comprises thefunction of weighting said tendency data in accordance withpredetermined criteria.
 26. The system of claim 24, wherein saidapplication further comprises the function of generating query stringsaccording to said tendency data.
 27. The system of claim 26, whereinsaid application further comprises the function of generating secondaryquery strings utilizing a query string database in conjunction with saidtendency data.
 28. The system of claim 24, wherein said selectingfunction further comprises selecting one of said plurality of audioadvertisements for said at least one user in accordance with saidtendency data.
 29. The system of claim 18, wherein said deliveringfunction further comprises downloading said at least one audioadvertisement onto a computer operated by said at least one user. 30.The system of claim 29, wherein downloading function further comprisesdownloading said at least one audio advertisement concurrently withdownloading of other types of data onto said computer.
 31. The system ofclaim 18, wherein said downloading function is completed regardless ofwhether said at least one user has left said user-selected Web page. 32.The system of claim 18, wherein said delivering function furthercomprises determining if a sufficient amount of said at least one audioadvertisement has been delivered as to begin playing of said at leastone audio advertisement.